Electrical usage for your house???

[Alan L.]

For 1000 square feet with 5 windows, and setting the a/c on 78 degrees that seems a little high. We use a lot of electricity ourselves, more than I thought we would. Bottom line I guess is that we set our thermostat on 69-71 most of the time and so its costing us. We have a minisplit in the master bedroom which we set on its minimum setting of 64 at night and turn the rest of downstairs to 74 or 75 when we go to bed.

We have foam insulation in the walls plus 1/2 inch foam insulation applied outside the OSB, and R50 in the ceilings, radiant barrier and ridge vents. We have separate 2-stage Trane 16 SEER units upstairs vs downstairs. We set the upstairs on 76 and it almost never comes on. We cut it down to 70 or so at night when the grandkids spend the night.

Our family room is 22 by 20 and the ceiling is 20 feet tall and there is an open loft. Hot water is propane. Total square footage about 2200. The house has about 20 windows, lots of windows on both front and back of the family room. They are wood, Marvin ultimate double pane Low-E with argon. We have an Anderson french door with low E glass also. Quite a bit of windows, which we leave uncovered most of the time, but all but 2 are under porches.

Ours was more than 3400 kwh last month, the highest it has ever been since we moved into the house. The bill actually covered about 34 days, and it was very hot during that time period. First time it ever broke $400 since we moved in 2 years ago.

I think even in a well insulated house it takes considerable cooling to drop it to 70 from 75, that is our problem, but 70 feels alot better to me.

If I set it on 78 it would have to be really hot for it to run hardly at all I think.

Both of our children had braces. I think the oldest was in college when we finished paying them off, REAL slow. She has beautiful teeth now, and is fixing to have to pay for my grandchilden's braces now.

 

[Sigarms]

You only pay $16.66 per month average.

I wish, make that $200 per month

This month the electric bill was $256

Summers the highest for electric, but I also have a whole house dehumidifier that draws over 10 amps running 24/7 in the summer as well.

Winter is the lowest time I see the electric bill. However, I do have the LP bill (which cut more than half going to dual fuel on the two HVAC systems and a vent free fireplace on the main floor). A quick guess with the LP bill added to electric, it run on average to $285 per month

I think even in a well insulated house it takes considerable cooling to drop it to 70 from 75, that is our problem, but 70 feels alot better to me.

The question is not what the temperature is, but what is the humidty level?

Humidity has a greater effect on comfort than temperature IMO. Have high humidty in the home and you have to run the AC lower to feel more comfortable.

 

[Tig]

The meter is digital and was replace about a year ago with one that they can read from their office. From what I can tell, the meter before and this newer meter are both giving me high usage for the small home.

This is something that I've never heard of before. Do you know of a link that will explain this to me?

Thank you,
Eddie

Eddie,
Check this article out. They are called Smart Meters
Your local utility website should tell you which features are implemented. I have had them on my last two houses but very little if anything was implemented.

Also a thought, what temperature do you have your hot water set to? I set mine low when the kids were little to avoid accidents. We have never run out of hot water, so I leave it low. I think I set it to 120 but I'm out of town for a couple months so I can't check. Every bit counts.

 

[RadarTech]

Eddie,
Adding to the previous post about the water heater..
My water heater had a temperature sensor problem and seldom turned the lower element off.

BUT I found this by the same method your talking about.. turn all the breakers off and check the meter, then go breaker by breaker.

Looking forward to hearing about what you find.


J

 

[Lloyd_E]

We run from high of 2052 to low of 905 kWh every two months.

The high is from adding an electric baseboard heater in the tack room set at low.
We use efficient bulbs in the house and barn. And use our dryer, deep freeze and dish washer all year round. We do not use the dryer setting on the dish washer. We use oil hot water baseboard heat with a wood stove - primarily a wood stove through the winter months though.

Those 1500 watt or 1750 watt baseboard heaters can burn up a lot of energy.

I hope you find your problem... it may be a faulty meter. We had restaurant owner in our little town who complained of high power bills... eventually went to court to get reimbursement from the town/utility. They had a faulty meter!

lloyd

 

[MarkV]

I was hoping that Eddie's problem was a meter but it sounds like the problem existed before they put a new remote reading meter in also. I sure hope it isn't something with the underground lines. That could be a big job.

MarkV

 

[EddieWalker]

Me too!!! LOL

I still haven't been able to check the breakers, but hope to real soon.

Here is a quote that I received and I was wondering if anybody knows anything abou this.

If you live in the United States a quick way to save money on a electricity bill is to "Balance" the amperage or electrical loads so the amperage draw is equal on each leg of electricity that passes through your watt hour electrical meter used by your utility provider.

The way the watt hour meter operates is the amperage or load is divided into two power legs or phases 120 volt line to ground circuits, each of the two being metered on a home 3-wire system (utility transformer or power lines to utility watt hour meter base). If one leg or phase of the 120 volt line to ground is at 40 amps and the other 120 volt line to ground is at 80 amps your pay for the 80 amps the higher of the two. If both 120 volt line to ground legs or phases are balanced at 60 amps per leg or phase ..... right you pay for the 60 amps ..... not the 80 amp high leg or phase on a unbalance 3-wire system.

Eddie

 

[CinderSchnauzer]

Me too!!! LOL

I still haven't been able to check the breakers, but hope to real soon.

Here is a quote that I received and I was wondering if anybody knows anything abou this.

Eddie

Even if true the majority of electrical appliances would be operated in a random fashion, so it would be almost impossible to equalize the load over any given period. For 120V circuits e.g. two yard lights operated at the same time it would be easy to make sure each circuit breaker is on a different bus bar. All the big loads - 240V will be automatically split unless wired incorrectly. Each side of a dual breaker goes to the opposite bus bar.

 

[Tig]

Here is a quote that I received and I was wondering if anybody knows anything about this.

Doesn't sound right to me. It's mangling of the current voltage phase imbalance problem, mostly a concern in large 3 phase implementations. If current and voltage are out of phase, usually due to large inductive loads, you will be charged for power you did not use.
Fluorescent lights with bad ballasts can also cause this by putting a capacitive load on the line.
It's been quite a while since college, but that's the gist of it.
Bottom line is that your meter charges you for the sum of the current on the common return line.

 

[kenstrac]

Eddie, I believe that is an error. 80+40=120 60+60=120 the 120 amps is what the bill you for.

 

[heehaw]

"Bottom line is that your meter charges you for the sum of the current on the common return line." i didn't think there was any current on the common return line if the load was balanced? so i don't see how that could work?
heehaw

 

[BobRip]

Me too!!! LOL

I still haven't been able to check the breakers, but hope to real soon.

Here is a quote that I received and I was wondering if anybody knows anything abou this.



Eddie

Eddie, that's bogus. They charge you for power, it does not matter how you use it. This is just a legend. Some people make money by "balancing" your loads. You will not save anything.

 

[Alan L.]

Maybe you should turn off the main breaker and then take a look at your meter. If its turning, somethings wrong.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

A 1 phase, 3 wire meter will use use both load conductors for the metering. A mechanical KWH meter is an induction motor, with currents derived from the load conductors using current transformers.

 

[dfkrug]

I use about 450-475 KWh/month year round for about a 2000 sf house.
I pay an average of about $15/mo for propane, too.

I do have a lot of electric stuff (water heater, well pump, septic pump,
compressor, welders, etc.). No A/C.

Question: does everyone here pay widely varying amounts per KWh for
electricity? I pay about 12c/KWh for the first 350KWh in a month. The
next 100KWh bumps up to 13 cents, then over 450 it jumps to 26 cents!

 

[piller]

Our all electric 2100 square foot double wide mobile home in TN used 1430 kWh last month for a family of four. We pay about 12 cents per kWh here.

 

[heehaw]

hey, what has happened? have you found a problem yet or are you really using that much electricity?
heehaw

 

[ultrarunner]

The Kill-A-Watt devices are on the rack at my local Costco store for $26.00.
I use one to check my pto alternator voltage and frequency and another to check my appliances. A 50" LCD HD TV uses the most juice at my place other than the oven. The welder and air compressor take the most power out of my barn. I wouldn't think a leak out of a wire would last very long before it shorted out or blew a hole in the ground (That happend to my shed soon after a lightning hit). Is there anybody else who'se tapped into your electric feed and is getting a free ride? That's pretty common around here in the township with all the remote buildings and field outlets.

Here's what I found at Costco for $84.99

Costco - Kill-A-Watt Surge Protector & Outlet Package

 

[EddieWalker]

Sorry for not updating this. I received the Kill A Watt, but haven't done anything with it yet. I was planning on doing it over the weekend, but it's never stoped raining and the meter is several hundred feet away from the house. While it's not a huge issue to slop around back and forth in the mud to see what it's reading when I turn off the breakers, it's also something that can wait until it dries out a bit. Six day of rain has turned out to be more then I had expected!!! LOL

The other concern is doing this when Steph doesn't have laundry going on, or we're doing something with the kids. My Dad is also reminding me on a fairly regular basis on when I'm going to do this.

Thank you to everyone for your help and concern. I'll be sure to update this when I get off my but and figure out what's going on. I did get another electric bill. Last month I used 2,464 kWh of electricity.

Eddie

 

[heehaw]

the kill-a-watt will only measure the 120volt devices you have: but its a place to start: i replaced a Hunter ceiling fan a couple weeks ago, because i need a ceiling hugger type an it didn't have a reverse: but i was really surprised when i set the step stool under the fan an reached up to start taking it apart: the metal housing was really hot: the fan worked fine, but no telling how much electricity it was pulling when it was on. a little to run the fan an a bunch more leaking an heating the metal housing.
heehaw